Isaac G. Pierson and Brothers began as a firm manufacturing cut nails and screws in Ramapo, New York, at the turn of the eighteenth century and expanded by the 1820s to include a cotton factory. The company provided a complete community for its employees, operating a general store, a flour mill, a farm, a wood lot, a church, a school, dwelling houses, tenements, and a worker-funded Society for Mutual Support.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, some of the work seems to have been done as outwork, with pay arranged by a system of barter. For instance, in 1809, Catherine Fox, a widow, was billed for "leather, 166 1/2 pounds of iron, 1 pair of shoes for son," and was credited with "part of a note, carting iron, fruit, and cash in full." Later work books from 1817 to 1833 include separate records for men and women.

Wage and time accountingLedgers: BD 1-4 (1795-1831); BE 1-3 (1833-1846)